


drink the sea

by orphan_account



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Adopted Children, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Everyone Loves Mako Mori, F/M, Families of Choice, Implied Raleigh Becket/Mako Mori, Military Families, Shovel Talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-11
Updated: 2013-12-11
Packaged: 2018-01-04 07:36:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1078292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Today was turning out to be a really fucking strange day.</p><p>(Or five people who gave Raleigh the shovel talk and one who surprisingly didn't.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	drink the sea

**Author's Note:**

> i hate this movie.
> 
> and by i hate it, i mean i watch it a shit ton and wait eagerly to spend exorbitant amounts of money on said products once xmas shopping is over. 
> 
> still not beta'd

****

v. 

“Mr. Becket, we talk yes?” 

“Look, Ms. Kaidanovsky, I have some stuff to unpack and...uh, stuff. Ranger stuff, orders of the Marshall. Gotta prep up in case the line of duty calls which according to the two man research team, that ought to be soon.”  
“That was not a question, Mr. Becket. It was more of an order. Now, please, sit.”  
Sasha slid a steaming mug of coffee across the mess table to an empty spot that she clearly meant for him. Her mouth curved up slightly, and she shot him what was probably meant to be a disarming smile. However, the sharp and straight white teeth peaking out of blood red lips gave a much more predatory look than she was going for. 

Or maybe she was going for the whole “I could rip your throat out with my teeth” look. Who knew?

It’s not like he really knew her. It’s not like he really knew any of them anymore. He never worked with them, and those he did, well, five years is a hell of a long time. People change. He’s changed. This whole damn world has been changing for the last ten years. 

Raleigh sat down dutiful onto the hard metal bench. Alexis is nowhere to be found, and admittedly, he quite grateful for that. One Kaidanovsky is enough to put the fear of God into him. Two would just be another cruel joke the universe likes to play on him so much. 

“Your first drift did not go so well this morning.” It was more of a statement than a question. Her voice is soft and soothing. There was no malice in her tone, no intention to hurt. What she said was merely the statement like one would tell another about the weather or what’s for dinner. 

Still, Raleigh could help but look away, embarrassed for Mako but mostly for himself. 

“Most first drifts do not go well, and yours could have gone much worse. No one was injured. Both you and Miss Mori are physically fine. You could always try again.” She paused to take a long sip of her own mug. “Speaking of Miss Mori, I would hope we could be on the same, how do you say, page about this.”

He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. “Of course, ma’am.”

“Good, good.” She took the time to deliberately fix her rings, twisting all of them so sharp patterns and trinkets faced outward, towards him. The effect was a very elaborate, very painful set of brass knuckles. “Miss Mori has been like sister to me. I watch her grow from little girl to young lady, you see. A good girl always, very kind, very promising in her work. Piloting a jaeger is her dream, Mr. Becket. Should you ruin this for her, well, our next talk will not be so pleasant. You understand?”

Raleigh just bobbed his head up and down so hard his neck practically ached. 

Sasha just smiled. 

“Good,” she said. Her voice had suddenly changed to bright and cheerful. “Now you go do what you needed to do. I shall be seeing you around.”

Raleigh never walked away from the mess hall so quickly (and so empty-handed) in his life. 

 

****

iv. 

He spends the better part of the next hour roaming aimlessly around the Shatterdome. He’d hate to admit it, but he’s completely and totally lost. He has nowhere to be. Mako has essentially disappeared since their ill fated morning drift. He can’t remember if he was supposed to take the next left or the last right to get back to his room. 

He does remember, however, the name of the man on the warpath straight for him followed by a tiny bulldog down the dimly lit hallway. Chuck Hansen, half of the Australian father/son team, douchebag extraordinaire, Raleigh remembers him less than fondly. 

“Hey Raaaayleigh,” His accent is thick and angry. As Chuck, the little son of a bitch, draws out the first syllable of his mispronounced name, Raleigh muscles tighten. His knuckles itch. You can’t punch your way out of all your problems, but it does work for some. Especially when the problem is a whiny little brat who doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. “Bang up job you did today. Nearly killed us all.” 

“That wasn’t m-.” Raleigh’s attempt to defend himself is immediately met with a calloused palm to his left cheek. 

“Save it, asshole.” Chuck grabbed the front of Raleigh shirt. His fingers tightened over the worn fabric. His voice lowered to a growl as he slammed him up against the metal wall. The metal piping bit at the back of his calves. Between the thumping of the blood in his ears and the violent threats being hurled at him, Raleigh barely noticed the sound of the dog barking and impending footsteps coming around the bend. “If you hurt her, if you ruin this for her, you better realize you’ll have me to deal with. And I’ll beat you so damn hard, your dead brother’ll feel it.” 

Another shove up against the wall for good measure, and Chuck Hansen was gone. Nothing left to prove that he was ever there than the fading sound of boots and barking and a stinging pain on Raleigh’s left cheek. 

 

****

iii. & ii.

“What the hell happened to you? Get your butt whipped by the Aussie asshole?” 

The one of the remaining two members of K-Science whose names Raleigh couldn’t remember to save his life, the one with the tattoos, called to him as he and his partner rounded the corner. 

“Your nicknames are rich, Newton. The Aussie asshole is truly a stroke of genius, so original.” The other one, the one with the cane, reprimanded him. 

“Damn it, I’m a doctor, not a poet.” The one with the tattoos, Newton, shot him back a violent glare. The bickering continued right there in the hallway, partially in English, partially in German or at least what Raleigh thought was German. 

“I, uh, I understood that reference.” The bickering stopped immediately as they both turned to stare at him. Raleigh shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, suddenly very aware of his stinging cheek. “I understood that. It was from Star Trek, right? The doctor guy says it.”

“Nah, no way man. You were one of the last people I would have thought would be a Trekkie.” Newton draped his arm around Raleigh’s shoulders. “The reboot or the original series? Because honestly-”

“I’m really not that much of a fan. I, uh, my brother, Yancy, and I went to go see the movies in theaters. There wasn’t really a lot to do in Alaska before giant aliens started attacking.” He offered them a weak smile.

“Are you lost, Mr. Becket?” The one with the cane, Hermann, asked, saving him from more embarrassment. 

“Is it that easy to tell?” The weight of Newton’s arm was still heavy on his shoulders.

“Considering that the only things that are down this hallway are the lab and the engineering and science dormitories and the fact that you are unlikely to be interested in either? Then yes, it really was.” 

“Hermann and I were heading to the mess. You wanna come with?” Newton smiled, his arm still around Raleigh. His stomach rumbled loudly, and Raleigh realized he hadn’t actually eaten anything this morning. He passively let himself be guided away.

They started walking forward, turning down the next hallway, as Hermann followed them. The sound of sneakers, oxfords, and boots shuffling reverberated through the empty hallway. “I heard you and Mako nearly blew the place up this morning.”

“Newton!” The sharp interjection came from behind them.

Newton shrugged innocently. “He has to learn. This is Hong Kong. The only thing that travels faster than the gossip here are the punches. Oh and it’s not a week until the Aussie asshole punches something, or someone, in the face. Don’t take it too personally.”

Maybe that was the explanation for whatever the hell happened between him and Chuck earlier. As much as he hated to admit it, it didn’t really satisfy him in the way he was hoping. He was kind of hoping for an excuse for a rematch. 

“Anyway, kid, just don’t screw this up for her. She’s wanted this since she was, like, four. This was her entire life,” continued Newton as the din of the mess grew louder. “Besides if you do mess with her, which I’m pretty sure you won’t, but if you do, I’m writing a paper on the prolonged effects of Kaiju Blue on the human nervous system. I could use a live specimen to test on.”

Newton lead him to the center of the mess. Hermann followed dutifully. 

“What?” Newt inquired, outraged, over Raleigh’s shoulder. “No comment from the peanut gallery on the unethical use of human beings in science? No input on how childish threats are?” 

The other scientist frowned. Deep wrinkles around his eyes made him look older than he really was. It was kind of intimidating in a “teacher is disappointed” kind of way.

“None.” He tilted his nose upward. “Should he hurt Miss Mori, I promise I shall look the other way in whatever you choose to do to him.”

And with that, the two men walked off towards the back of the cafeteria. 

Today was turning out to be a really fucking strange day.

 

****

i.

A hand firmly clapped him on the back. Raleigh jumped. 

“Touchy today, my brother?” He whipped around to see Tendo balancing a tray filled with a sandwich and four paper cups of coffee. “Why don’t we sit down, and you can tell me what shitstorm you got yourself into this time?”

Raleigh dutifully followed as Tendo slipped onto one of the hard metal benches. He plopped himself down across from his friend. Tendo had already began to doctor his paper cups, four packets to each. Diabetes and caffeine addiction in one convenient place, ready for consumption. 

“I don’t think you get it. It’s been a bad fucking day,” Raleigh sighed. 

“It tends to be when you and the girl you met like two days ago almost blow up half of the people in this joint,” chuckled Tendo as he stirred his coffee rather aggressively. 

“Nah, it wasn’t that.” Raleigh fiddled with a sugar packet. “I got the shovel talk from like four people today, and I’m not even dating Mako. We’re just friends, bro. Like you said, we met a day and a half ago.” 

Tendo’s chuckle deepened into a laughter.“Yeah, that’s something you need to learn. They all love her.’

They sat in silence while Tendo took a long gulp out of the first cup. 

“Just out of curiosity,” Tendo started to cut his sandwich in half. “Who was it?”

“The Russian lady, Shae or whatever?”

Tendo shrugged. “Sasha? That’s understandable. They’re both apart of the Shatterdome ‘Girl’s Only Club’. Really good friends, Sasha treats Mako like a little sister. Helped her dye her hair. Bought her some good vodka. Took her out for her twenty first birthday with a bunch of other girls to drink and talk about punching giant monsters in the face or whatever the women in this shithole talk about. Next?”

“Chuck Hansen.”

Tendo laughed so hard three Chinese engineers that were sitting next to them got up and moved somewhere else. He took another long gulp of the first cup before crushing it in his hand. 

“He’s an asshole-”

“Yeah, I got that.” Raleigh’s hand immediately moved to his cheek, rubbing it self consciously. 

“But also understandable. Herc and the Marshal were really close, you know. The whole single father during the wartime and brothers-in-arms shit, it runs strong in those two. Mako and Chuck grew up together. They might not be family, but they’re the closest thing the other’s got. They always watched out for each other. Everyone thought it was gonna be them to pilot together. Next?”

“Those two guys from K-Science threatened me.”

Tendo nearly choked on his sandwich. 

“Newt and Dr. Gottlieb?” He choked out. Raleigh nodded furiously. “That’s rich. Newt’s probably joking. Dr. Gottlieb probably isn’t. They’re both like Mako’s surrogate uncles or older brothers or whatever. They were in their twenties when the Marshal adopted her. They knew her since she was a kid. Hell, they taught her the majority of the stuff she knows.” 

“What about Doctors Gottlieb and Geiszler?” A soft voice came from behind Raleigh.

Tendo laughed harder. “Nothing, Mako. Nothing at all.”

Raleigh whipped around. Mako was standing there with two full trays, one in each hand. 

“Hey, Mako.” He looked down at the ground.

“Hello, Mr. Becket. I was wondering if you would like to have lunch with me. I think we should...talk about what happened this morning.” Mako offered him a tray. He took it, smiled at her, and waved good bye to Tendo.

Tendo just laughed even harder. 

They were almost out of the mess when Mako turned and asked him, “Mr. Becket, why are so many of them staring at you?”

Raleigh draped an arm around Mako’s shoulders. He could practically hear the snarling 

“You know,” he professed. “I have no idea.”

****

+i.

“He wanted me to give this to you.” 

Marshall Hansen looked tired. He looked old. He looked like he held the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had lost all he had in this world, and they shoved him back into the work that took it away from him. Responsibility is never ending, he supposed. 

“Listen, he knew he was going to die. He knew it was just a matter of time. I got one, too. So did Mako. I told him to just record a video or something. He wanted to write letters. Said they meant more. Sentimental son of a bitch.” 

Raleigh twisted uncomfortably in his hospital cot. “Thanks, this means a-”

“Don’t thank me, kid. It was him, not me. It was always him.” Herc shuffled out of the room, shoulders shagging. 

Raleigh directed his attention to the card on his lap. Cream colored and folded over, his named was written in neat tight script across the top. When he opened it, the golden embossed PPDC symbol glistened under the harsh lighting. Neatly typed underneath that were the words “From the Desk of Marshall Stacker Pentecost”. It seemed much more of an official correspondence than a last letter from a dying man. 

Until he read the message.

On the cream colored paper, written in the same tight handwriting, was a small message. Only a few sentences in length, it barely took up half the page. It read:

“She doesn’t need anyone to take care of her. You know that. She just needs someone to be there for her. I’m counting on you, Ranger.

-S.”


End file.
